Shark Finning

The Bitter Truth behind Shark Fin Soup

Every year, nearly 3.8 million tourists visit the beautiful island of Bali. Many of them visit attractions and participate in activities that fuel immense animal suffering. When holidaying in Bali, please choose your activities and the places you support with caution.

Shark fin is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries where shark fins are “harvested” in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup.

Every year, tens of millions of sharks are killed globally to supply the demand for shark fin. This means that three sharks are killed every second to satisfy the demand for shark fin.

Indonesia catches more sharks than any other country in the world. In high season in Bali alone, it is estimated that fishermen capture and fin 40-60 sharks per day!

Shark fin usually fetches a much higher price than shark meat, providing an economic incentive for the cruel, wasteful and indefensible practice of “finning.”

What You Should Know about Shark Finning

“Finning” is the act of hauling a live shark – regardless of age, size, or species – from the water, cutting off its fins and disposing of its usually still alive body back into the ocean. It can take days for the shark to die a slow, painful death – from drowning, starvation or being slowly eaten away by other sea creatures.

More than 8000 tons of shark fins is processed each year. Shark finning takes place at sea … so the fishers only transport the fins. Shark meat is considered low value and therefore not worth the cost of transporting the bulky shark bodies to market. But the fins amount to only 4% of a shark’s bodyweight. This means that some 200,000 tons of shark is thrown back into the sea.

Specialists estimate that within a decade most species of sharks will be lost because massive harvesting will reduce shark populations faster than they can reproduce to replenish populations.

The extinction of multiple species of sharks will have devastating impacts on the oceans’ ecosystems.

What You Can Do

DON’T buy shark fin soup or other products containing shark.

WRITE to your local Indonesian Embassy to call for a ban on capturing and finning sharks.